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GEM Electric Supply Inc., located in Illinois, is a wholesale distributor of "electrical supplies, lighting fixtures, hardware, and home furnishings”. The company was founded in 1970 by Bill Conrad and John Manning. There are four different store locations; the Alsip location was opened in August of 1994. The Alsip building was the largest acquired by GEM, and the extra space allowed the business to expand to more goods than just electrical supplies. The company is family owned and run with three generations having managed the stores.

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Illinois Bell was a local operator of the Bell Corporation starting in 1877. In 1984, the Bell Corporation was determined to be in violation of antitrust laws, and was ordered to break up into seven, "Baby Bells," including Ameritech, which inherited the Illinois Bell Company. Illinois Bell kept its name until the 1990s when Ameritech changed it for marketing purposes. Several of the baby bell companies have gone on to become major phone providers in the US, such as AT&T and Verizon.

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Arlene’s Catering was a food service business run by Arlene Kmak in the Chicago suburb of Blue Island. The business operated as early as 1967 when it appeared in a newspaper article for catering an event held by the Blue Island Evening Women’s Club. Kmak and her business were very involved in local community events helping to stage an Easter bread sale at St. Donatus church, giving a presentation on wedding catering at the 1974 Kline’s Spring and Summer Bridal Show, and being a co-chairmen for the Mother of Sorrows Home and School Guild Fashion Show. In 1991, she was part of a group of business and community leaders to organize a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for local families of military personnel serving in the Gulf War. Arlene’s Catering donated all of the food to the event. Kmak died in 2011.

Metal mechanical button with blue image of building and tan background. The lever on the top shows text in the cutout window when it is up. When pressed, the spinner inside selects one of two profile images of presidential candidate men. The lever can be locked on a notch to display the selected candidate.

See more innovative and unique buttons in action on the Busy Beaver blog.

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Learn more about the History of Flapper Buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

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“Take me to your leader” is a popular sci-fi phrase that was first used in a 1953 cartoon published by The New Yorker. Since then, it has been stated on both the big and small screens for comic effect. The saying is most commonly uttered by an extraterrestrial being to the first human it encounters after landing on Earth.

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This quote by President Barack Obama is from his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The Tenth Congressional District Democrats—the organization that created this button—has helped elect Democrats at all levels of government within Illinois’ 10th Congressional District since 2004.

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The "audacity of hope!" is a reference to Barack Obama’s keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, “Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope..." Given a few months after Obama won the Democratic Primary for United States Senate, the speech received rave reviews. It put in him on the map for the US Senatorial race, which he ended up winning in November 2004.